| | | | | | | Presented By PBM Accountability Project | | | | Axios Science | | By Alison Snyder · Jul 13, 2023 | | Thanks for reading Axios Science. This edition is 1,751 words, about a 6½-minute read. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Investigating the XY factor in disease |  | | | Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios | | | | Scientists are beginning to understand how sex chromosomes and hormones affect people's risk for certain diseases — and whether the biology behind those differences can be harnessed to improve treatments. Why it matters: Doctors and scientists have long recognized certain diseases affect men and women differently but that is rarely reflected in the dosage and design of drugs. Driving the news: A newly approved drug for Alzheimer's disease may be less effective for women — who are more likely to develop the disease over their lifetime — than men, my Axios colleagues reported this week. What's happening: Study after study has described the differences in the impact of disease between males and females. Details: Researchers are beginning to understand the molecular underpinnings of these differences. - The X chromosome encodes several genes known to be involved in stimulating the immune system.
- One study found a gene on the X chromosome is expressed more in the immune cells of females than in males. When researchers deleted the gene in mice that had been bred to have an autoimmune disease similar to MS, they had fewer symptoms. The activity of genes related to healthy immune activity also increased and the activity of those involved in inflammation in the brain decreased.
The effects from the expression of genes on the X and Y chromosomes are overlaid with the effects of hormones in males and females, which can change over time, says UCLA professor of neurology Rhonda Voskuhl, a co-author of the study. The big picture: For decades, the subjects in basic research experiments and clinical trials have heavily skewed male. - The over-reliance on males stemmed in part from long-held assumptions about the impact of hormones on female subjects. That was recently challenged in a study that found the behavior of male mice was more unpredictable than females.
- An act passed in 1993 required studies supported by the National Institutes of Health to include women, and in 2016, the agency adopted a policy requiring females in animal studies and for researchers to account for sex as a biological variable.
Where it stands: An analysis published in 2020 found an increase in studies that include males and females — from 28% in 2009 to 49% in 2019. - But there "was no change in the proportion studies that included data analyzed by sex."
- The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in May updated its guidelines to encourage authors to report sex (when referring to biological factors) and gender (when referring to identity, psychosocial or cultural factors) in their study. Some people's sex chromosomes don't align with their gender.
"There's been tremendous progress" at the pre-clinical trial level due to the NIH mandate, Voskuhl says. But even if females are increasingly included in studies, there is still a major gap in analyzing data by sex. - But it's "data hiding in plain sight," says Janine Clayton, director of the Office of Research on Women's Health at the NIH.
- There are statistical approaches that can reveal the influence of sex if a study is rigorously designed, she says, adding doubling the number of subjects isn't necessary.
Between the lines: Clinical trials can be affected by the gaps in animal studies. - "A major problem is that when a Phase 3 clinical trial is beginning, we do not know whether a sex-specific effect should be expected," Timothy Hohman, a neurology professor who studies Alzheimer's disease at Vanderbilt University, tells Axios in an email.
- "We need to do better. We must generate and publish data on sex and gender at all phases of therapeutic development, particularly in a disease like [Alzheimer's disease] that has such striking disparities."
Go deeper. |     | | | | | | 2. Canadian lake marks a new epoch |  Data: International Commission on Stratigraphy; Chart: Alice Feng and Tory Lysik/Axios Earth's more than 4.5 billion-year history is divided into geological epochs that each typically span millions of years. On Tuesday, scientists announced that sediment at the bottom of a lake in Ontario, Canada, contains key indicators that the world has entered a new epoch called the Anthropocene. The big picture: These researchers say humans, rather than a natural phenomenon like an asteroid strike, pushed the planet into this phase — one in which Earth is being rapidly transformed. - "[W]e are living in a new geological period, one in which the scale and power of human activities match or even exceed the scale and power of natural processes," Naomi Oreskes, a professor of the history of science at Harvard University, tells Axios via email.
Driving the news: A working group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy announced sediment from the bottom of Crawford Lake in the suburbs of Toronto contains markers of "human-caused planetary change" and "the socio-economic dynamics and violent histories that continue to drive the Anthropocene." - But in defining a new epoch, the researchers are primarily focused on finding a geologic record of changes that occurred globally.
- Starting in the 1950s, the sediment record contains artificial radionuclides from nuclear weapons testing that spread radioactive elements around the planet.
- Markers of industrialization and globalization — nitrogen and mercury released from burning fossil fuels, microplastics pollution, nitrogen from fertilizers and other changes — also spiked at different places across the globe in the mid-20th century.
How it works: A key element for designating an epoch is a "golden spike" — a place on the planet where evidence of the start of a global change is found etched into rock, sediment or ice. - Since 2019, teams of scientists have been studying sites around the world — from the lake in the Toronto suburbs and a coral reef in Australia to peatland in Poland and the floor of the Baltic Sea — in search of a location that best captures a permanent record of the alterations humans have made to planet as a whole.
- At Crawford Lake, soot, logging debris, pollen and other particles that carry fingerprints of human activities drop to the lake bottom.
- Their age can be determined by a layer of calcite that forms on top of sediment each year during the summer, the Washington Post's Sarah Kaplan writes, giving scientists an annual record going back centuries.
Where it stands: The new epoch isn't a done deal yet — the Anthropocene is, for now, still just a proposal. - The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and then the International Union of Geological Sciences will ultimately vote to decide whether the Anthropocene should be designated a new epoch.
Go deeper. | | | | | | | | 3. What the world's increasing heat does to our bodies |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | With record high temperatures becoming the norm, humans are more regularly hitting the threshold of our ability to cope with heat, Axios' Tina Reed writes. Driving the news: The Earth has hit back-to-back historic heat records in recent weeks and excessively high temperatures have lingered across many regions in the U.S. Danger zone: Researchers previously believed 95°F at 100% humidity, equal to about 115°F at 50% humidity, was the maximum a person could endure before losing the ability to adequately regulate body temperature over prolonged exposure. - But a 2022 study from Penn State researchers found that 87°F at 100% humidity was the maximum for young healthy individuals to adequately regulate. Another recent study suggests a range between 104°F and 122°F — depending on the humidity — is the threshold, NBC News reported.
- There's really no magic number for when things get too hot to handle, but a person can start developing heat illness at even lower temperatures than that depending on age, health, the ability to regularly find relief and even the medications they're on.
Why it matters: Knowing how the body responds to punishing conditions can help to determine how we'll need to adapt — at both the population and the individual levels. - "Our body is extraordinary. It's able to keep our core body temperature within a few tenths of a degree. That stabilization allows us to thrive," Kevin Lanza, an assistant professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, told Axios.
- The body typically cools itself through a mixture of sweat and evaporation, as well as the constriction and dilation of different veins to move blood around and transport heat from the core to other parts and then be released, he said.
- That's why, while it sounds obvious, water and rest are essential.
Read the entire story. | | | | | | | | A message from PBM Accountability Project | | PBMs profit from the cost of your medication | | |  | | | | These health insurance middlemen profit each time you go to the pharmacy counter. - The top 3 PBMs recorded more than $27 billion in profits last year.
- More than 80% of voters want to stop PBMs from directly profiting off drug prices.
It's time to separate PBM profits from the cost of medicines. | | | | | | 4. Worthy of your time | | Chinese company becomes the world's first to launch methane rocket to orbit (Passant Rabie — Gizmodo) Stone walls and historical harbors are unexpected havens of biodiversity (Ilima Loomis — Hakai) Gödel, Escher, Bach, and AI (Douglas Hofstadter — The Atlantic, paywall) | | | | | | | | 5. Something wondrous |  | | | Rho Ophiuchi seen by the JWST. Photo: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Klaus Pontoppidan and Alyssa Pagan (STScI) | | | | Newly forming stars 390 light-years from Earth shine in a new photo from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, Axios' Miriam Kramer writes. Why it matters: The young stars in the image are all similar in mass to our Sun, allowing scientists to peer into what the early history of our nearest star likely looked like. What's happening: The new photo, released in honor of one year of science operations with the JWST, shows Rho Ophiuchi, the closest star-forming region to Earth, according to NASA. - "The darkest areas are the densest, where thick dust cocoons still-forming protostars," NASA wrote in a statement.
- Jets of molecular hydrogen — seen in red — are the result of baby stars bursting into being, breaking through their "natal envelope of cosmic dust, shooting out a pair of opposing jets into space," NASA added.
- The bright cavity in the lower left portion of the photo was carved out by the star S1, the most massive star in the image that is more massive than the Sun.
How it works: This region of space would largely look dark and unimpressive to the naked eye, but the JWST's extreme power brings out the beauty of Rho Ophiuchi. - The telescope cuts through dust, revealing the details hidden behind it by looking out into the universe in infrared light — wavelengths the human eye can't see.
The big picture: The JWST is already changing scientists' understanding of the universe, from the evolution of early galaxies to the compositions of alien planets' atmospheres. - "With a year of science under our belts, we know exactly how powerful this telescope is, and have delivered a year of spectacular data and discoveries," JWST senior project scientist Jane Rigby said in the statement.
- "Webb's science mission is just getting started — there's so much more to come."
| | | | | | | | A message from PBM Accountability Project | | PBMs drive up the cost of prescription drugs — even generics | | | | | | | | A non-profit generic drug company launched a generic cancer drug with a price of less than $175. Okay, but: Medicare was charged by its PBM more than $3,000 for the same drug, driving out-of-pocket costs up for patients. Learn why it's time to separate PBM profits from the cost of medicines. | | | | Big thanks to editor Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath, to Shoshana Gordon on the Axios Visuals team and to copy editor Carolyn DiPaolo. |  | | Are you a fan of this email format? Your essential communications — to staff, clients and other stakeholders — can have the same style. Axios HQ, a powerful platform, will help you do it. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters.
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